With American set to hit the debt ceiling again thanks to out-of-control government spending, the Washington Post has suggested a solution for President Obama: mint two platinum coins valued at $1 trillion each. What would this do? According to the Post:

Thanks to an odd loophole in current law, the U.S. Treasury is technically allowed to mint as many coins made of platinum as it wants and can assign them whatever value it pleases.

Under this scenario, the U.S. Mint would produce (say) a pair of trillion-dollar platinum coins. The president orders the coins to be deposited at the Federal Reserve. The Fed then moves this money into Treasury’s accounts. And just like that, Treasury suddenly has an extra $2 trillion to pay off its obligations for the next two years — without needing to issue new debt. The ceiling is no longer an issue.

By exploiting the law, liberals in government can simply end the Constitutional practice of having spending originate in the House of Representatives. Since the US Mint operates as a wing of the executive, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, who spends most of his time these days trotting around delivering other insane Obama proposals, could order such an action.

The Post floated this idea just days after meeting with President Obama at the White House, along with MSNBC opinion hosts and members of Daily Kos.

President Barack
Obama’s first term taught businesses a clear lesson: CEOs and businesses
that support the president will be rewarded with taxpayer-funded
corporate welfare and favorable regulations, and those who oppose him
will be shut out or crushed.

On Friday, the
Obama Administration sought to teach the nonprofit world the same lesson
during a White House gathering of charitable officials, say
Republicans, when charities were bullied into supporting higher taxes on
the wealthy to avoid losing vital deductions for charitable
contributions.

“Today, the White
House chose to mislead and scare America’s charitable giving community,
using them as pawns in an effort to achieve their tax hike proposal,”said
Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), the chairman of the House Ways and Means
Committee, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the ranking Republican at Senate
Finance in a joint statement issued Friday. “This is abhorrent, wrong and needs to stop.”

The GOP leaders
made their statement after the Obama Administration held a Friday White
House meeting with several charitable officials and held a call with
other nonprofits. Rep. Camp and Sen. Hatch said charitable officials
contacted them with concerns after the White House meeting. The
implication was clear: either support Mr. Obama’s tax hike on the rich
or donations to your charity may no longer be tax deductible.

The White House strategy of fear and intimidation appears to be working.

In an eyebrow raising article, liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof offered a startling concession: “This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency. Our poverty programs do rescue many people, but other times they backfire.”

Writing from Jackson, Kentucky, Mr. Kristof reported that numerous poor parents in Appalachian hill country are yanking their kids out of literacy classes in order to bag a $689 monthly Supplemental Security Income (S.S.I.) check per kid. The checks continue until the child reaches 18 years of age.

“The kids get taken out of the program because the parents are going to lose the check,” said Billie Oaks, who runs a literacy program here in Breathitt County, a poor part of Kentucky. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Cornell University Economics Professor Richard V. Burkhauser says parents are inducing illiteracy to keep the taxpayer-funded welfare checks rolling in. “One of the ways you get on this program is having problems in school. If you do better in school, you threaten the income of the parents. It’s a terrible incentive,” said Professor Burkhauser.

Such government dependency, says local school district official Melanie Stevens, traps poor children and families in a cycle of taxpayer-funded dependency that replaces dreams with welfare checks: “The greatest challenge we face as educators is how to break that dependency on government. In second grade, they have a dream. In seventh grade, they have a plan.”

Indeed, the S.S.I. welfare program has morphed into a way of life for many, writes Kristof:

About four decades ago, most of the children S.S.I. covered had severe physical handicaps or mental retardation that made it difficult for parents to hold jobs — about 1 percent of all poor children. But now 55 percent of the disabilities it covers are fuzzier intellectual disabilities short of mental retardation, where the diagnosis is less clear-cut. More than 1.2 million children across America — a full 8 percent of all low-income children — are now enrolled in S.S.I. as disabled, at an annual cost of more than $9 billion.

That is a burden on taxpayers, of course, but it can be even worse for children whose families have a huge stake in their failing in school. Those kids may never recover: a 2009 study found that nearly two-thirds of these children make the transition at age 18 into S.S.I. for the adult disabled. They may never hold a job in their entire lives and are condemned to a life of poverty on the dole — and that’s the outcome of a program intended to fight poverty.

Conservatives have long advocated marriage as the best anti-poverty program going. The logic is simple: two paychecks are twice as much as one.

Radical feminists, however, have eschewed such economic logic, suggesting that the two-parent model is patriarchal and outmoded. As the former head of the National Organization for Women (NOW) Kim Gandy put it, "Marrying women off to get them out of poverty is not only backward, it is insulting to women."

But the New York Times’ Kristof appears to have found religion on the economic and developmental virtues of marriage as well: “A growing body of careful research suggests that the most effective strategy is to work early on children and education, and to try to encourage and sustain marriage,” Kristof writes.

The New York Times is by no means changing its ideological stripes. But Mr. Kristof deserves a hat tip for acknowledging what conservatives have known for decades: marriage reduces poverty, and boundless welfare vaporizes human flourishing.

Former United States Marine (once a Marine, always a Marine) and Iraq
War Veteran Jon Hammar endured much in his tour in the streets of
Fallujah, but now he spends most of his time chained to a bed in a
Mexican jail on trumped up gun charges that could result in twelve years
in jail. Not surprisingly his former commander-in-chief Barack Obama
has been absolutely silent on the matter, even though he was arrested on
August 13. Didn’t anyone tell you this?

Hammar took to Mexico
with a friend to surf, as it was the only thing that seemed to ease his
mind following his service in Iraq. He is now within walking distance
of the U.S. border, but sadly does not possess the freedom to do so.

The
reason might seem ludicrous. Hammar took a six-decade-old shotgun into
Mexico. The .410 bore Sears & Roebuck shotgun once belonged to his
great-grandfather. The firearm had been handed down through the
generations, and it had become almost a part of Hammar, suitable for
shooting birds and rabbits.

But
Mexican prosecutors who looked at the disassembled relic in the 1972
Winnebago motor home dismissed the U.S. registration papers Hammar had
filled out. They charged him with a serious crime: possession of a
weapon restricted for use to Mexico’s armed forces.

Hammar isn’t
the only American accused of questionable gun-related charges at
Mexico’s border. Last April, a truck driver who was carrying ammunition
through Texas got lost near the border, dipped into Mexico to make a
U-turn and was forced to spend more than six months in jail.

According to his grandmother the shotgun was more like a “glorified BB gun.”

Both
Hammar and his friend Ian McDonough were arrested, not because of the
gun, which had cleared customs, but because of the length of the barrel.
The Mexican prosecutors “dismissed the U.S. registration papers Hammar
had filled out,” charging Hammar with the serious crime of “possession
of a weapon restricted for use to Mexico’s armed forces”:

Curiously,
it wasn’t the type of shotgun that broke Mexican law. It was the length
of the barrel, which the formal citation said was shorter than 25
inches, although a discrepancy has emerged over how the barrel was
measured.

Hammar’s friend, Mcdonough, was released and allowed to walk back into Texas.

According
to Marine Sgt. James Garcia, who served with Hammar in several combat
situations, he said Hammar was “one of the best we had.” According to
the reports Hammer, who is now only 27 years old, “joined the Marines
and deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq before receiving an honorable
discharge in 2007, serving another four years in inactive reserve.”

During
his stay he has received death threats and as he was sent to a state
prison in Matamoros, his parents in Florida received extortion phone
calls demanding $1,800. They did not pay, but instead contacted U.S.
diplomats who were able to get Hammar moved from a wing of the prison
controlled by a Mexican drug cartel into solitary confinement.

Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee said, “His family has described a very disturbing situation
that includes their son being chained to a bed in a very small cell and
receiving calls from fellow inmates threatening his life if they did not
send them money. The family also says that the jail where their son is
being held is controlled by the dreaded and brutal Zetas drug cartel.
The family wants their son back home, and I will do my best to help
them.”

I’m pretty sure the Mexico is pretty ticked off still over
our government’s blatant supplying of arms to Mexican drug cartels with
the Fast and Furious scandal has hurt our relationship with them. No
doubt there should be no need to take it out on a U.S. citizen, but this
is what happens when you have a man like Barack Obama in the White
House.

While Garcia says, “He doesn’t deserve this. We never
leave a brother behind. We never leave a Marine behind. We have to do
something,” and the Hammar’s own representative says she will do all she
can to help, Barack Obama has said absolutely nothing on the matter or
lifted a finger to help this marine who served his country.

Frommy perspective the Barnes Precision Machine BPM-15 AR-15 concentrates 100% of its price into everything you need in a high grade AR15 without the expensive “Tacticool” upgrades which net little in terms of accuracyor functionality. It is a rifle which is at the top of my list when someone wants a recommendation for a no-nonsense tack driver for patrol, sporting, and/or home defense use. Mybuddy and I proved that this BPM-15 was up to the task of medium range target engagement by delivering reliable hits on the 500 yard gong from prone position with only an Eotech 512 and Atlas bipod attached. If you are exterminating little rodents, I would definitely slip on a higher power optic to take full advantage of the BPM-15's half-MOA accuracy.

With the exception of the sub-MOA accuracy bit, this sounds like any AR you can get from just about any AR manufacturer who offers an upgraded A, B, or C rifle package. Oh, but there is so much more to the story to this capable rough and tumble $1200 AR and the manufacturer.

“We took our men from Texas, Kentucky, and Virginia; from
the mountains and the backwoods and the plains. We put them under
orders — guerrilla fighting orders, and what we lacked in numbers, we
made up in speed and brains. Both Rebs and Yankee strangers, they called
us ‘Mosby’s Rangers.’ Both North and South they knew our fame. Gray
Ghost is what they called me; John Mosby is my name.”

Both Boustany and Landry ran as conservative Republicans, with virtually
the same stances on issues. However, the new district’s designs favored
incumbent Boustany, known as a traditional Republican with strong ties
to House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio. Landry, who was a freshman
congressman, was the tea party favorite in the race.

The runoff was ordered because neither candidate mustered more than 50
percent of the vote in the November election, which was a requirement to
win the race. Boustany captured 40 percent of the vote, while Landry
attracted 30 percent, reports The Chicago Tribune.

Boustany raised $3 million for the general election campaign, reports
the Center for Responsive Politics, almost 50 percent more than Landry,
even with his backing from the tea party movement.

It's official. Taxpayers are no longer simply helping the poor, they're
subsidizing the lives of welfare recipients at a better rate than their
own. The Senate Budget Committee has released a report showing
households living below the poverty line and receiving welfare payments
are raking in the equivalent of $168 per day in benefits which come in
the form of food stamps, housing, childcare, healthcare and more. The
median household income in 2011 was $50,054, totaling $137.13 per day.
The worst part? Welfare payments are equivalent to making $30 per hour
for 40 hours a week. The median wage for non-welfare recipients is $25
per hour but because they pay taxes, unlike welfare recipients, the wage
is bumped down to $21 per hour. From the report:

For fiscal year 2011, CRS identified roughly 80 overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item in 2011—more
than the nation spends on Social Security, Medicare, or national
defense. The total amount spent on these federal programs, when taken
together with approximately $280 billion in state contributions,
amounted to roughly $1 trillion. Nearly 95 percent of these costs come
from four categories of spending: medical assistance, cash assistance,
food assistance, and social / housing assistance. Under the President’s
FY13 budget proposal, means-tested spending would increase an additional
30 percent over the next four years.

By all means Mr. President, let's raise taxes on people already paying the majority of the taxes because clearly they aren't "paying their fair share" to subsize the lives of others already.

Most governments, Communist ones included, are quite concerned if it
is discovered that espionage agents from an opposing power have wormed
their way into their governmental agencies and are busily passing along
confidential information to potential adversaries. However, it seems
that quite often the attitude in the United States government has been
“whatever will be will be.” So the Communists are stealing top secret
information from us—so what.

It is noteworthy that before World War 2, when Roosevelt was in
office, this kind of activity was going on wholesale and those who had
been warmed of it did nothing. Whittaker Chambers in his informative
book Witness noted that when Roosevelt was
told of Communist penetration of the State Department he just laughed.
No one bothered to look into anything until the informants became
numerous enough that the situation could no longer be ignored.

Last week on the website Emergency Management, there appeared a blog post
written by an emergency manager named Valerie Lucus-McEwen in which she
made a grave error in judgment. She called doomsday preppers “socially
selfish.”

She based this startling conclusion on the National Geographic’s “The Doomsday Prepper”
series and concluded that because the people featured in this show were
spending their OWN time and their OWN money to stockpile their OWN
resources in order to prepare their OWN families for whatever disastrous
scenario they foresaw, they are selfish. Specifically, as another
emergency manager phrased it, this is “a level of indulgence that is
selfish and counter-productive to providing for the common good.”

“You might wonder,” wrote Ms. Lucus-McEwen, “why someone like me, who
has been in the business of encouraging disaster preparedness for a very
long time, is so critical of people who are doing just that. It’s
because they are being socially selfish – preparing themselves and the
hell with everyone else. Instead of spending time and energy making
changes that would benefit the larger community, in their very narrow
focus of loyalty they are more concerned about themselves. … Our job is
to prepare individuals and communities and jurisdictions and regions and
– ultimately – the globe for disasters, knowing we won’t always
succeed.”

Little did Ms. Lucus-McEwen realize she was opening an enormous can of worms. The blog post got blitzed with comments, universally condemning her for her conclusions and asking why it was the job of ordinary preppers to “provide for the common good” at their own expense.

Why should I die for you?My life is it dear to me as anyone elses.My fears also shake me, just like anyone else.Do we not have the same dreams, the same desires?What is it about us that people could look at us, and label us the same? Our loves and our hates, as different as they may be, inspire us equally in our own way. The end result for all of us will be the same.(Quoted from Knuckledraggin my life away- This post illustrates how most patriots desire to react when others rights are being trampled.Follow them
at a discreet distance and when they get to where they're going, pull
out your rifle, assume a good firing position and commence to shooting
the motherfuckers.

Strong feeling
among the patriots. Mutual aid, Mutual defense. Side by side. A common
feeling. Were tired of watching on the sidelines as one family after
another gets their doors and their faces kicked in. )But ....you chose this outcome, I did not. All those who were not only complacent but complicit. Perhaps you see
some goal that I am unable to see? A world where our absolute slavery
is not guaranteed? You might get up and go to work every day, take your
kids to the movies, have dinner with your wife, but you only do that by
the grace of the higher power. Because they don't have a reason to take
it away...yet.And if that is so, why should I stand against it for your own protection?Why should the sheepdog battle the Wolves for the life of a sheep that has willingly offered itself up as a meal?Why should a patriot stand on the firing line against tyranny when just as many bullets will be coming at them from the back?I wrestle frequently with my part in these issues.Everything in me screams to stand and fight. But for every
one of us who turns their eyes toward the light of truth, tens of
thousands laugh and smile as they bathe in the riches of a dying
nation. Kerodin asks again what should be done with such people?Live and let live?TPTB will let you live. As long as you play the game, do what you are told, and wash your hands in pontius' cup.Meanwhile peoples lives are being destroyed by false charges, regulations and media puke. And the majority of the country is not just watching it happen, they are happily voting it in.

Conservative Blog Award

Dixieland Salvation Fund

Follow by Email

Counter

Southern Lady

Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
==============================
My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
=============================
My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
===========================
*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
===========================
*The Attack On Fort Stedman
============================
"His Colored Friends"
============================
Lee's Surrender
=============================
My Black NC Kinfolks
============================
Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.

Thank you

I would just like you to know how so very glad I am that I found your blog. I have learned more history from you and the many links that you post than I have from reading all my history books. I can never thank you enough for the education you are freely giving me. It is priceless. And eye opening.

Many times I will not comment, but that does not mean I am not reading and learning.

You sir, are an educator. Thank you.

PhyllisWantage, NJ

Good morning Mr. Townsend,

Just to let you know I have finally finished that massive tome on General Lee. I never knew 1/10th of what a great man he was. No wonder the South is so proud of him! So sad that we have few men of his caliber today. We need them desperately. I have learned more history through you and your blog than I thought I could ever learn. I am very grateful to you. Thank you so much for taking time to answer my e-mail. And thank you for your blog and for opening my eyes.

PhyllisWantage, NJ

".......So good to hear from you! And also so pleased you are converting more of us Yankees! You have no idea how many people you have taught. And how many are so grateful to you for showing us the truth."

Your faithful friend,

Phylis

==============================

I have also learned from Brock Townsend and two nurses lately, that appreciation expressed by someone for whom you have great respect overwhelms the lack of appreciation by some from whom you expect it. I believe that we cannot really know which small bit of help makes the life-saving difference. ﻿

I have learned more history from you than all the years I was supposed to be in school (and not out hunting or fishing).

==============================

I really must say, I like thousands of others have said, your blog is the best out there and with all of your history and experience, you should run for *president. I look forward to reading your blog every day and every day I learn from you. Thank you for the time you put into this effort .

Sincerely,

Scott Fitts

*It would have to be an improvement. :) BT

==============================

Hi Brock,

Ever since I picked up on your blog I "Knew" you were a "Gentleman of the South!" You lack the "Crassness" that is so prevalent in today's Sociopolitical arena but speak with the Firmness in Truth and Conviction of Right like the words of our Late Great President Jefferson Davis! That is Honorable.

I have been thinking about this for a while now. At first it was a very subtle notice, then it became larger as I saw more. Then it bloomed to me to be what it is. In your writings, in your Blog, Brock, "You" have written, posted and done more to eradicate the "Revisionist History" forced on us by the "Northern Aggressors,"BAR NONE!!!" The "Stars and Bars" fly High and Proud today even more thanks to your efforts!

Reading your post on 03 JUNE about the birthday of President Jefferson Davis and the "quotes" of his was the galvanizing statement! The first words of "His" you posted say so much, are timeless and can never be "Destroyed!" by any man! .......and those words were........

"Truth crushed to the earth is still truth still and like a seed will rise again."--Jefferson Davis (1808-1889)

In so many ways you and your efforts to keep and carry on the "Truth of the South" are the water and light of the Sun that nourish "That Seed" that Jefferson Davis speaks of! That "Seed" of "Southern Truth!" That cannot be vanquished because of efforts like Men as yourself!

refzip.com

http://refzip.com/

Fair Use Notice

"This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes."